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I did a crafty check on my old Mk1 Avensis GLS '98, and it has passed it's MOT for another year. That is great because I maintained it for 13 years, and it was a great workhorse. There are a few Mk1's in my area mostly the 1.8 leanburn engine. These cars are so easy to maintain and repair if needed. I saw the car a couple of weeks ago and it has not been cleaned since I sold it, and I can see the polish marks I made. I gave them the spare oil I had, plus a headlight bulb. Now I have moved on to my Mk3 and hope it can live up to the Mk1.

Thank you for the replies cheers, Mark

This is my favourite bit: "and you can even switch the 'transmission' to manual mode where it makes a hilarious pretence of 'changing gear' using the flappy paddles on the wheel. This was presumably fitted as a sop to journalists and other morons who are congenitally incapable of appreciating the joys of smooth progress which only a CVT can offer" Brilliant, well said.

Here, Here. Thanks Jay for an excellent review. An enjoyable read and very helpful. I would be interested to hear more when you have had the chance to drive the Lexus on snow or icy roads. I owned an IS250 for three years and it was a lovely motor and a joy to drive, except on snow and ice when it became an absolute pig. Lots of power, an automatic gearbox, rear wheel drive and no limited slip differential. It was just a very bad recipe for driving on slippery surfaces. The Lexus followed two Nissan Maximas and a 3 litre Camry each of which had front wheel drive and all of which were easy to control on snow and ice. My first Prius was part of a plan to get back to front wheel drive and I was very pleased with it in that regard.

Great write up Jay, and three cheers for wittering on. Its nice to hear about the warts, as well as the beauty spots, and leaves a sort of contented feeling that maybe the Gen 3 is not too bad, and that a 2016 plate will still irritate after 3 months. As somebody who has just spent a few bob on anew car, then it would be easy to stay with the rose tinted specs to (internally) justify the expense, rather than a possible slightly painful honesty. Interestingly, as an Observer for the IAM/RoadSmart, my present trainee has a Toyota GT 86, which also has some pretty low rent internal trim from whatever left overs Mr T has in his parts bin. As a 6 speed manual witha pretty cack handed owner, it is a not a peace passengers seat, as my head alternately hits the windscreen and then the rear hatch windows (with every gear change), or brae application. But there are no rattles despite a ride quality that probably is grreat en route to Spain, but not around rural Herts, and although road testers complain of lack of grunt, and low torque, it is both a very fast, but very docile car, and seriously responsive.......eg., much tooooo responsive for my ex-NASA IT specialist. Work in progress!

I've had the same service manager (and engineer) for over 14 years now, and they are surprisingly able to think for themselves - and apply common sense. It's a wonder Toyota hasn't fired them!

Maybe you just need to bleed the rear brakes, maybe it's more serious than that. How did you retract the caliper pistons to let you get the new pads in?

I fitted one to SWMBO's Gen 2 earlier this year, it's a bit fiddly to fit but do-able. The only thing that needed to be reset afterwards on hers was the drivers auto power window (others are not auto), even the radio stations were still there after, which surprised me, I thought they would have to be re-tuned.

Obd signal? Do you mean the engine management light? It could be a host of things you would be better to get it plugged into a diagnostic tool and see what the problem is.

The OBD light means your On Board Diagnostis system has detected a fault you will need to connect the car to a compatible diagnostic computer and have the fault code read then diagnosed

Hi Mark. I think you are thinking totally sensibly and yes the battery is quite old now. Batteries from Toyota's are better quality then others on the market in my opinion and yes get Toyota to fit it, you'd be amazed at the things that possibly won't work afterwards if you had it fitted by a non Toyota dealer, this way you get a full g'tee with it and the fitting.